Dice Karma: The Analyzing

[ZebulonCrispi]

While some of us may deny it, we all know deep inside that the dice are plotting against us. Chance is but a minor factor in how often we score those critical hits - our dice know what we want, and it is fully in their power to provide or deny it.

A similar phenomenon is the inscrutable force of Dice Karma, which we'll all try to believe in despite all evidence to the contrary. Five natural 1's in a row? Clearly the die is due for a whole slew of 20's soon.

This leads me to thinking. Which is a better way to store dice: all on their highest roll, so that they'll grow accustomed to rolling high, or all on 1, to accumulate valuable karma in your absence?

(April Foolsy? Sort of!)

[Ranis]

That's....umm.....wha?

Get your religious banter out of my D&D!

[Hamster_Ninja]

I've found that if you store them with the 20 up, d20s begin to feel you only want them for the high numbers. A more middle number helps them know you appreciate them even when they only give you a 4 or 10.

[Inyssius Tor]

I leave them with 8 facing up. It's directly adjacent to 20 (in case the luck "settles"), but it doesn't actually run the risk of "airing out" all of the good luck.

...

[Bears With Lasers]

...god, I hate Magical Thinking.

[Green Bean]

Rule One of Dice Karma: You do not talk about dice karma

[Morty]

Dice Karma=screwed dice.
Really, if some numbers are rolled more often than others, that means you have to buy new dice. It happened to me, my d20 used to roll 9 20% of times.

[Swordguy]

You want to store them 20's up. Dice have a high viscocity - like glass. Therefore, like glass, they have a tendency to settle over long periods. As the plastic settles away from the upper face (the 20), more weight will be distributed to the bottom of the die and thus make it more likely that a 20 is rolled (due to it being lighter because of having less plastic).

[Inyssius Tor]

Dice Karma=screwed dice.
Really, if some numbers are rolled more often than others, that means you have to buy new dice. It happened to me, my d20 used to roll 9 20% of times.

Well, the idea isn't to roll 20's all the time; the idea is to roll a 20 right now (when you're surrounded by giants/bluffing your way out of execution/playing dead so the chuul will drop you and go away) and then roll a 1 later; perhaps on a skill check at DC 50 in a skill you have no ranks in.

[martyboy74]

You want to store them 20's up. Dice have a high viscocity - like glass. Therefore, like glass, they have a tendency to settle over long periods. As the plastic settles away from the upper face (the 20), more weight will be distributed to the bottom of the die and thus make it more likely that a 20 is rolled (due to it being lighter because of having less plastic).

(Was that dripping with sarcasm? If so, sorry about this post; my sarcasm senses need resetting.)

...glass doesn't flow....

[Bears With Lasers]

Actually, glass does flow. It just flows very, very, very slowly. And not at room temperature.

[JoeFredBob]

Edit: simuninjad

[martyboy74]

Actually, glass does flow. It just flows very, very, very slowly. And not at room temperature.

Wait, not at room temperature? What do you mean by that? If you melt it it flows?

[Bears With Lasers]

You don't have to actually melt it for it to start flowing slowly. If you liquefy it entirely, of course it'll flow.

[Sage in the Playground]

(Was that dripping with sarcasm? If so, sorry about this post; my sarcasm senses need resetting.)

...glass doesn't flow....

Yes. It does. So slowly your pathetic human eyes can't detect it. Like continental drift.

EDIT: NINJA'D

Oh, well. Useless Fact: Glass is technically a liquid.

[daggaz]

Glass flows at room temperature. Just VERY VERY slowly. Look at some old windows some time, the streaky, warped look is from glass flow, which of course happened at room temperature, nobody took those windows down and put them in an oven one day to get that effect.

[Sage in the Playground]

Ninja City!!!!!!!

[martyboy74]

The gospel of Wikipedia doth deny thou.

[Sage in the Playground]

The gospel of Wikipedia doth deny thou.

Gospel? Dark, dead Elder Gods don't DO gospels.

[Premier]

Back on topic: It doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that if you're playing around a table with a glass surface, you should first put a sheet of paper on it, and then roll the dice on the paper, not directly on the glass.

I'm speaking from experience.

[Demented]

Unless you really hate that glass surface.

[Arlanthe]

I had this brass D6 I carried around with me for awhile once. I want on a ride at the fair, and it fell out of my pocket, and hit a metal platform below with a big "CLUNK". I did find it later, but man that would have stung if it hit someone.

Was this off topic? I rolled a "4" that time.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

Before or during a game, I arrange my dice by type in eye-pleasing configurations, as if they had rolled the highest number. Now, I know that this has nothing to do with the fact that I routinely roll high, but it pleases me to think that it does.

As to your question of storage, the folks that say 20-up are backed by genuine science, so I'd agree with them. I, however, store my dice in a Crown Royal bag, and that seems to suit them just fine.

-Blue

[Vik]

As it has been pointed, it won't flow.
But you'll slowly erode your dices by always putting them on the same side. Depending on how it erodes, it will affect the stats of your d20 ; as I see it, the way I usually put them on the table, it should widen the side you put them on, so that you effectively rise the probability to get the up side.

[Telonius]

In yesterday's gaming session, on two separate occasions and with two separate players, a roll of 1 was immediately followed by a roll of 20. In a separate occurrence, another player rolled a 1. Trying again, immediately before he rolled, he said, "Let's try not to roll a 1 again, shall we? It's gotta even out." Of course, the die came up as a 1.

Chances of rolling two natural 1's in a row: 1 in 400. Make of it what you will.

[alchemy.freak]

Dice Karma works in mysterious ways: usually it accumulates for players when the odds are stacked against them.
for instance my players were screwed, i had them up against 2 much higher level terrorists armed with AK's and gave them unnatural CON scores so as that they would be hard to kill. i split my the players up so that two were separated and the remaining 3 were fighting the terrorists. yet these terrorists armed with AK's could not land a hit, every time i rolled it was under 10.

and the one guy in my party scores a crit with a hatchet and he was sneak attacking the terrorist( i know there is no sneak attack in CoC, but i gave it to the player for a reason) so he deals aboot 40 damage to the guy and kills him instantly.

my point here is, the dice karma showed itself when the odds of winning were very low. and helped them out a lot

[Legoman]

In the last session I DM'ed, a player rolled 6 20's in the span of 10 rolls.

I however, rolled max damage with every attack against the party, and had he not, I would have had to think on the fly to work the TPK into the story.

Dice Karma balances it out. I'm just thankful that this all happened at level 3, not at level 17 when that player will have a vorpal sword.

[Variable Arcana]

Neat Wikipedia link -- I'd always believed the glass-is-liquid thing.

And that 70-year experiment with the dripping pitch is incredibly cool.

[Person_Man]

...god, I hate Magical Thinking.

I second that. I also hate animism, the belief that animals, plants, and inanimate objects have spirits/souls/magical energy that govern their existence.

The die does not hate you. It's not an evil die. The die was cast from the same plastic as a million other die, and unless there was some sort of physical mistake making your die, it is no better or worse then any other.

If an infinite number of monkeys typed on an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, one of them would eventually write Eregon. If you keep rolling 1's on the same die, you're that monkey.

[ZebulonCrispi]

I second that. I also hate animism, the belief that animals, plants, and inanimate objects have spirits/souls/magical energy that govern their existence.

The die does not hate you. It's not an evil die. The die was cast from the same plastic as a million other die, and unless there was some sort of physical mistake making your die, it is no better or worse then any other.

If an infinite number of monkeys typed on an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, one of them would eventually write Eregon. If you keep rolling 1's on the same die, you're that monkey.

Statistically speaking, I'm sure everyone here is fully aware of how goddamn ridiculous the idea of dice karma is. We're not stupid. In the heat of battle, though, it's easy to let those age-old superstitions take hold of you. Also, it's fun to joke about.